Left Hand Treble Crochet Tutorial #7: TR in the Front Loop Only

Hi, it's Deja from crocheteverafter.com and this tutorial is going to show you how to treble crochet in the front loop only. Alright, here is a treble crochet in the front loop only swatch. It's a little mini swatch so you can see what the effect that you get when you perform this stitch. As you can see, you have a little bit of a line, a horizontal line, where the rows that you're working into the front loop only, this is the back loop that's showing. So I have four rows, and just this middle one is showing. When I flip over to the other side, you can see I have two horizontal lines. This can create a nice textured effect if you're working garments or scarves or anything and it gives you a it gives you a flat fabric but it also stretches it out a little bit because it's working just in that front loop it kind of tilts your stitch a little and makes it longer and leaner. So if you need a long, lean garment that drapes nicely and you like this horizontal line that you get, you can use the front loop only stitch. So this is how you are going to work it. I have finished my row. I turn my row. And then I'm going to chain four. And I do that for my height. And then I'm going to work just into the front loop across my entire row. Now when I'm looking at my stitch, I need to find my front loop. So if you're new to crocheting, what you can do is turn your work on its side and look for your Vs. The stitches look like letter Vs stacked on top of each other. Each V is one stitch, and each V has two loops when you have it facing the correct way. This first loop The right of the V is your front loop. It's facing you and it's in front. The left of your V is your back loop. It's facing further from you and it's in the back. So to do my treble in the front loop only, I yarn over twice. This chain four counts as my very first stitch, so I don't have to work into this very first V. I don't have to pick a loop. That is being taken care of by this chain four. I'm going to work into this next V, or my next stitch, and I'm going to go under that front loop. There's kind of a little hole that you can see, like you would work under both loops. What I'm going to do is I'm going to insert my hook there and then push straight up, and that's going to catch that front loop nice and easy without having to hold it or move it or manipulate my hook to catch it. I yarn over and pull my loop up, and I keep all my loops on my shaft. By keeping all my loops on my shaft, you can see that all of my stitches without any blocking are all the same height. So if you're getting stitches that are kind of going up and down across your row, if you keep all your loops on your shaft throughout, you're going to have nice even stitches. So I'm going to finish off this treble crochet by working two loops off three times. Now I have my finished first treble in the front loop only. To catch that front loop easily, I'm going to stick my hook in like I would for a regular stitch, but I'm going to stop, and I'm going to push straight up. So that way I come out the middle of my V. I go in and push straight up, and I come right out the middle of the V and catch just that front loop very easily. And I finish off that treble by working off all of those loops. So let's work the treble together this time, so you can get those steps just in case you're new to treble crocheting. I have three loops on my hook, and I have to work off two loops at a time. Oops, I'm sorry, I only did one yarn over. I should have four. I have four, and I have to work two off at a time. So I yarn over and pull through two. Yarn over, pull through two, and I have two left. So I'm going to yarn over and pull through those. Again, stick right in the center. And you can even put your finger here to kind of stop your hook so that you can make sure that you're pushing it straight up and through. And that'll kind of block that back loop from being picked up. It's kind of just pushing that back loop down while you're pushing up with your hook. So that's another thing if you're still getting caught. Sorry I did a double again. Be conscious of doing the double yarn over before I start my stitch. I don't use treble too often. I'll use it in shawl patterns usually because it's... especially if I'm using a lace type yarn because it will take forever. To do a shawl in lace yarn, so doing treble stitches kind of speeds that up. So I have two stitches left, and I want to show you how to work into that chain four. So let me do this last treble in the front loop only, and then I am at my chain four. The first and last stitch of your row are not too important because the first stitch is going to be your chain 4 and the last stitch is going to be working into your chain 4. So it's going to be pretty impossible to do front loop only stitches in these because they don't have actual stitches. So I usually will just work under 2 loops to keep my hole a little bit smaller on the edges and I'm going to show you what that means. When I do my stitch under both loops, the resulting hole that I get is kind of in line with the rest of them. If I only do one loop, so say I just wanted to grab this front loop here and do my stitch, you can see that it pulls all my other chain stitches and creates a really big hole. So if you don't like that big hole on the edge, just grab two loops as you work those last stitches in each row, And it'll create less of a hole. That's how you're going to work in the front loop only, and this is the effect that it gets. If you have any questions, just leave them below, and I will answer them for you as quickly as I can.